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Monday, January 16, 2012

KOREAN ROCK: The Ju Ju Club (1996~2000) (2)

Korea, 1996 and the Ju Ju Club 1996 ❷

[MV] The Ju Ju Club: I am Me (1996)

In 1996, The Ju Ju Club (or Juju Club) released
their debut album, 16/20, and it was an instant million seller with two mega
hits - “16/20” and the follow-up, “I am Me” or "I'm Me" (나는나,
Nanun Na). The song’s success was even greater than the previous song. The song starts with the
chorus, “Ddae, ddae, ddae, ddae…,” by Ju Dain herself; actually, she did the
entire chorus as well in all their songs. The word ddae is homonymous
with ddae which means “dead skin” in
Korean, so the song was nicknamed mogyoktang
song (목욕탕송, Public Bathhouse Song)1 or ddaemiri
song (때밀이송, Rubbing-off-the-Dead-Skin Song).2 Back
then, young people loved to sing this song in noraebang (노래방, which literally
means “song room”),3mimicking the motions of rubbing off the dead
skin while singing along the chorus, “Ddae, ddae, ddae, ddae….” And I still start out my noraebang with this
song – most of the time – when me and my friends have a noraebang night in
Hannah’s (one of my dear friends) basement.

The song, Nanun na (I am Me), tackled the beliefs about female premarital virginity that had been portrayed, either
overtly or tacitly, as ideal in Korea until the end of the 20th
century. Those beliefs are labeled as sungyeol
ideologi (순결이데올로기, which literally means “(female) virginity ideology”). The music video of the song starts with a
girl holding a stuffed animal in the hand and ends with a woman holding a baby
on the chest. It’s not that hard to
understand that they are the same person and the song is her coming-of-age
story, a story about growing up female in Korea. Its lyrics can be roughly translated as
follows: “Why do many people forget all
about their past lovers? I guess there
must have been good memories (of their past relationships), but why are they
trying to hide their past? I have always
disclosed my past relationships. Some (of
my then-boyfriends) hated it and left me but even so, the good memories of them
still remain… all the time. Ah~ I can
tell anyone my experiences. I love all
the guys I once loved… forever.”

1.
A little curious about Korean bath culture? Since you don’t know when, Koreans have
been obsessed about keeping their body clean.
Ancient Koreans took a bath in streams, rivers, or lakes when it was warm
outside; in winter, they used the kitchen or barn area to keep their body
clean. The nobles had their own
private bath called jeongbang (정방, which translates to “cleansing
room”).

The first Korean public bathhouse
was built in Pyeongyang (the
capital city of North Korea today) in 1924. Nowadays, a public bathhouse has
evolved into a public spa, orjjimjilbang(찜질방) .
Although modern Koreans take a daily shower at home, they still go to
the public bathhouse or spa at least 4 times a month to get entirely,
thoroughly exfoliated.

A scene from Korean drama, nae ireumun gim samsun(My name is Kim Samsun), shot in the jjimjilbang

2.
Modern Korean people exfoliate their dead skin, ddae, with a red-turned-green or yellow square pad.
This pad is called itaeri taol,
which literally means “Italy towel,” or ddae
sugeon, “dead skin towel.” The pad’s
name has to do with the machine made in Italy that is used to produce the
fabric. (Ancient) Koreans had used a
stone wrapped in a towel to rub off their dead skin until the pad was invented
in 1964. The pad comes in glove shape as well.

Korean bath pads

3.Noraebang is a Korean pastime evolved from Japanese karaoke. Unlike karaoke, you sing in a private soundproof room, as indicated in its meaning, with a small group of friends.

It's been known that the song was such a smash hit that a Taiwanese female singer, Tarcy Su
(蘇慧倫), remade it into her own, which was called, “The Duck” (鴨子). The song title might have been inspired by Ju Dain’s intro chorus that sounds like a
duck? This remake was believed to have provided the band the opportunity
to make their name big throughout Asia even before the N.R.G or H.O.T.

[MV] Tarcy Su: The Duck (1996)

But now, I have to let you know that there’s something weird about this
song. First, watch the video below.

[MV] DJ Jerry:
Fast out of the Way (1996)

The above song was sung by a Taiwanese
rapper/singer Jerry Lo (羅百吉,aka DJ Jerry) and titled “Fast out of the Way” (快閃開). It has a
striking resemblance to “I am Me,” and what is worse is that the former was released
about three months earlier than the latter.
The chronological order of the release dates of these three songs is as
follows:

Artist

Album

Song

Release
Date

1

Jerry Lo

Friday Night

Fast out of the Way

July 11, 1996

2

The Ju Ju Club

16/20

I am Me

Oct. 1, 1996

3

Tarcy Su

The Duck

The Duck

Dec. 1, 1996

Does it mean the Ju Ju Club plagiarized
Jerry Lo’s song? I don’t know. For I know all the three albums were released
by the same Taiwanese label, the Rock Records, just two or three months
apart in the same year of 1996. Tarcy Su released her album, the Duck, on
December 1, 1996, when the song “I am Me” by the Ju Ju Club was just about to make
it big in Korea; accordingly, it’s just too strange to just simply believe that
Su remade the Ju Ju Club’s original number because it was an immense hit in Korea. Yet, while her song was credited to the
band (written & arranged by the Ju Ju Club), Jerry Lo’s song was credited to himself (written
& arranged by 羅百吉). How come the Rock Records didn’t know about
this when all three songs were released by the company itself? How come the Taiwan’s biggest major label made
Su, who was signed to its label at that time, remake a plagiarized - if it really
was - song? Given that, my best guess is the label recycled one single song written by the Ju Ju Club, or Jerry Lo, or a
third person inside the circle. One
thing I know for sure is that only the insiders know what the truth is.

Even though I still think “I am Me” is the best of the three and also the band’s greatest song ever, I’m also still feeling iffy about whether or not it is a plagiarized song because at least a half of their songs on the debut album were plagued
with plagiarism accusations. Except for 16/20, gonjubyeong (공주병,
which literally means “Princess Disease”),1
and/or nanun na (“I am Me”), plus two
more, the rest five songs were accused of having plagiarized Blondie, the
Cardigans, Frente!, Buck-Tick, and INXS, and eventually in 1997, it was ruled
that ijen anya (이젠아냐 , “Not any more now”) and doni deuni (돈이드니, “Does it cost money?”) had
respectively plagiarized Blondies’ “Denis, Denis” and Frente!’s “Bizarre Love
Triangle.” The same year, the two songs were banned from radio and television.

At first listen, I thought each and
every song on the band's first album was destined to become masterpieces. When Jaurim debuted with a single, “Hey, Hey,
Hey,” the next year (1997), I was undoubtedly sure the Ju Ju Club would outlive
Jaurim because I just loved Ju Dain’s voice and the band’s feisty, gutsy,
straight-talking lyrics. So, can you
imagine how heartbroken I was when the skeleton came out of the closet? Alas for you, poor Ju Dain! Such a wasted talent! But on second thought, it's no wonder since, unlike Kim Yoonah of
Jaurim, her voice was the only weapon Ju had in her arsenal. Having
no songwriting talent as Kim had (and still has), she had to rely solely on the
Ju brothers who turned out to be copycats. (One thing noteworthy is that the Ju Ju Band had brought in the legendary Korean bassist Lee Tae Yoon (이태윤) as a session bassist to record their first, second, and third albums. Lee had added resounding depth, flow, texture, and richness to every track on those all three albums.)

1.Gongjubyeong is another key word
that portrays the trends of the year 1996.
The word’s literal meaning is “Princess Disease” and its best
translation would be “Diva or Prima Donna Syndrome,” although the Korean
version has a cute implication. The
label is given to a self-delusional single girl and has a single male version (Wangjabyeong (왕자병), “Prince Disease”) a married
woman version (Wangbibyeong (왕비병), “Queen Disease”), and
a married man version (Hwangjebyeong
(황제병), “Emperor Disease”). This social, cultural jargon is so commonly used in Korea that there’s even a joke about gongjubyeong:

How can you determine if you are stricken with “Princess Disease?”

Symptom 1: You are always feeling sorry for all other girls
in the world

1 comment:

It's too bad JuJu Club didn't just present the "copycat" songs as covers (or was even openly covering songs frowned upon in Korea in the '90s?). I'd never heard the originals before, and now that I have, I still prefer JuJu Club's versions as I think they sound better.